OK, I must be doing something wrong when building the kernel or with the debian rootfs.

I downloaded the dream-3.0.9-uImage from http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/3/3.0/3.0.9/ and it works with the stock ubuntu rootfs. I cannot boot my rootfs with that kernel image because it doesn't have sata support built in and my uboot doesn't support HD (for loading the kernel), that's why I have build my own kernel in the first place. As said in the first post, I have copied the firmware files from the ubuntu rootfs to the debian one.

What I did to compile the kernel: * Download kernel sources and patches from http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/3/3.0/3.0.9/source/ * Applied all the patches * Copied dream-3.0.9.config to the kernel build directory as .config * change line SATA_MV=m to SATA_MV=y * cross-compile kernel and modules

The kernel itself works fine, I'm able to use the self-compiled kernel with the Ubuntu rootfs so there must be something missing from the debian system. What could be missing? The only thing I can think of is the firmware. Need to double check.

I've now checked that the uap8xxx.ko and the firmware files are identical in both installations, still the result is the same. Ubuntu works, Debian does not using the same kernel. What other factors could there be?